Donald Trump was repeatedly urged by his aides to call off the violent mob that attacked the US Capitol last year, but instead sat back in his private dining room at the White House and watched the rampage for hours, a congressional probe has found.

After seven hearings detailing how the former president and key allies tried to overturn the 2020 election, the January 6 committee put its focus on Trump’s conduct on the day of the riot and accused the former president of a dereliction of duty for repeatedly failing to call off the violence.

A video of Donald Trump is played at the hearing on Friday. Credit:AP

In a prime-time hearing on Thursday night (US time) the committee outlined how Trump did nothing for 187 minutes – spanning from the moment he ended a speech in which he told supporters to “fight like hell” to stop the election results from being certified, to the moment he finally told rioters to go home through a video tweet.

“Donald Trump would not get on the phone and order the military or law enforcement agencies to help,” said Republican and committee vice chair Liz Cheney.

“And for hours Donald Trump chose not to answer the pleas from Congress, from his own party and from all across our nation, to do what his oath required. He refused to defend our nation and our Constitution. He refused to do what every American president must.“

Today’s session included fresh in-person testimony from two key witnesses: former deputy national security adviser Matthew Pottinger, and former White House deputy press secretary Sarah Matthews.

Matt Pottinger, former deputy national security adviser, and Sarah Matthews, former White House deputy press secretary, are sworn in.Credit:AP

Pottinger resigned on the day of the riot after seeing the president attack his then vice president Mike Pence via a tweet, which declared: “Mike Pence didn’t have the courage to do what should have been done to protect our country and our Constitution, giving States a chance to certify a corrected set of facts, not the fraudulent or inaccurate ones which they were asked to previously certify. USA demands the truth!”

Pottinger told the committee: “I was disturbed and worried to see that the President was attacking vice president Pence for doing his constitutional duty. So the tweet looked to me like the opposite of what we really needed at that moment, which was a de-escalation.”

Matthews also resigned after the January 6 attack, telling the committee she viewed the tweet as Trump effectively “giving the green light” for his supporters to storm the building.

“I’ve seen the impact that his words have on his supporters. They truly latch on to every word and every tweet that he says,” she said.

“And so I think that in that moment for him to tweet about Mike Pence, it was him pouring gasoline on the fire and making it much worse.“

By the time Trump urged his supporters to go home shortly after 4pm that day, two pipe bombs had been found at locations near the Capitol, including where Vice President Kamala Harris was conducting a meeting, the committee found.

Hours of “hand-to-hand combat” had taken place between rioters and multiple law enforcement officers, Congressional members had to be temporarily evacuated, and one rioter was shot attempting to infiltrate the chamber.

But instead of calling any law enforcement or national security agencies to assist, Trump was phoning Republican senators in a last-ditch attempt to get them to throw the election his way.

Supporters of Donald Trump gathered outside the US Capitol before the January 6 insurrection. The committee has heard that Trump “summoned the mob”.Credit:AP

The committee also played new and chilling audio from the Secret Service agents assigned to Pence on January 6, who could be heard communicating on radio saying they feared for their own lives.

According to an anonymous security official, whose voice was disguised for his interview with the panel: “It was chaos.”

Video clips were also played from interviews with former Trump White House officials, including former national security advisor Keith Kellogg and former White House counsel Pat Cipollone, who were asked about Trump’s conduct while the Capitol building was being attacked.

One after the other, they each stated that they did not see Trump make any attempt to stop the rioters as they descended on the Capitol despite multiple attempts from various aides to get him to act.

Cipollone said he was one of many officials who expressed his opinion “very forcefully” that something had to be done to stop what was unfolding.

“I said, you know, people need to be told. There needs to be a public announcement – fast – that they need to leave the Capitol.”

He also expressed his view about the fact that at one stage during the insurgency, the mob began chanting for Mike Pence to be “hanged”.

“It was outrageous and wrong,” he told the committee in a video deposition.

Today’s primetime event was the eighth and last public hearing for the summer before the committee returns in September to present more of its findings as more evidence comes to light.

It remains unclear whether the committee’s work could lead to a criminal indictment against the former president. While the committee has provided what it believes is enough evidence of a conspiracy to defraud the American people or potential obstruction, it would be up to Attorney General Merrick Garland and the department of justice whether to lay charges.

Nonetheless, throughout each session, the committee has made the case that the Capitol riot was part of a multipronged plan by Trump to overturn the results of the 2020 election.

During its first hearing, the committee set the scene for how Trump incited the January 6 Capitol attack, accusing him of being central to a “sweeping and methodical conspiracy” to overturn the election despite the advice of his top aides and family members.

In subsequent hearings, the committee detailed the pressure placed on vice president Mike Pence to illegally overturn Joe Biden’s victory; the plot by Trump and his allies concocted to use fake electors to flip the 2020 election; and Trump’s attempt to corrupt his justice department to help him execute that plot.

One of the most explosive hearings, however, was the surprise hearing in which Cassidy Hutchinson, a former White House aide, testified that Trump knew the crowd at his rally on January 6 was armed but sent them to the Capitol anyway – and at one stage even wanted to join them.

Committee chairman Bennie Thompson, speaking via video link after testing positive for COVID19, said “there can be no doubt that there was a coordinated effort” to overthrow the election and “there needs to be accountability.”

“If there is no accountability for January 6 for every part of this scheme, I fear that we will not overcome the ongoing threat to our democracy. There must be stiff consequences,” he said.

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